From Claire Borowik

It has come to my attention that a number of the Family’s former members are under the mistaken impression that the Family was invited to participate in the Montel Williams show or present a written statement.

For the record, neither myself or any Family spokesperson was contacted by the Montel Williams show or offered an opportunity to appear on the show or present a written statement, either in 2005 when the show first aired or for the follow-up show of February 2007. I suspect that the brief remarks that Montel Williams read on the show may have come from a statement I issued to Good Morning America in January 2005. I cannot, however, ascertain that this is the case, as I never had any direct contact with the program. I did send a letter of complaint via the 2,000 character box allowed for comments to shows, but this was not quoted on the show (understandably since by the time I heard about the program it had presumably long been pre-taped).

That is not considered a sufficient right of response. It is the duty of the program to contact the parties involved and provide a platform of response. Whether Montel Williams indicated that the Family was contacted is quite irrelevant to me, as the Family was not contacted. To date, this is the only program in the States that I am aware of that aired this story since 2005, that did not contact the Family and offer us the possibility of either issuing a statement or appearing on the program.